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Disney World Dining
Posted: Sep Sun 27, 2015 7:12 pm
by littlered
What are your favorite restaurants to eat at in Walt Disney World? Why? I love counter service and I love the Electric Umbrella

Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Sep Sun 27, 2015 9:18 pm
by Amy
We enjoy the Sunshine Seasons food court at the Land. It has several choices for food so everyone can choose what they want to eat. Plus they have tasty, and huge, rice krispie bricks for dessert! Our other favorite at EPCOT is Via Napoli. The pizza is good, but the real star for us is the Zeppole di Caterina for dessert ~ pure heaven in the shape of little fried pieces of dough...mmmmm!
We like Flame Tree Barbeque at Animal Kingdom. Big portions at reasonable prices, and very tasty BBQ

Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Sep Mon 28, 2015 12:40 pm
by Captainnobeard
my favourite counter service locations are Flame tree in Animal Kingdom, Sunshine Seasons in Epcot and Pecos Bills in Magic Kingdom. not sure that Pecos Bills will stay at the top of the list for MK though, i'm not sure i like the sounds of the menu changes coming there later this week.
as for table service, that's a hard one, i love so many of them

In Epcot, Akershus and Coral Reef are both great (but we're eating in Via Napoli on Halloween night, so that may change

) , Sci Fi has great atmosphere that makes up for the average food. my all time favourite though has to be Chef Mickey's, Mickey Mouse is my hero

Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Sep Mon 28, 2015 7:17 pm
by Amy
Captainnobeard wrote:my favourite counter service locations are Flame tree in Animal Kingdom, Sunshine Seasons in Epcot and Pecos Bills in Magic Kingdom. not sure that Pecos Bills will stay at the top of the list for MK though, i'm not sure i like the sounds of the menu changes coming there later this week.
as for table service, that's a hard one, i love so many of them

In Epcot, Akershus and Coral Reef are both great (but we're eating in Via Napoli on Halloween night, so that may change

) , Sci Fi has great atmosphere that makes up for the average food. my all time favourite though has to be Chef Mickey's, Mickey Mouse is my hero

Consider trying the Zeppole di Caterina at Via Napoli ~ hands down my favorite dessert I have ever had anywhere!
Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Sep Mon 28, 2015 10:33 pm
by Captainnobeard
Amy wrote:
Consider trying the Zeppole di Caterina at Via Napoli ~ hands down my favorite dessert I have ever had anywhere!
those sound deadly.... i just may have to sacrifice myself to test them out

Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Sep Tue 29, 2015 6:34 am
by Amy
Captainnobeard wrote:Amy wrote:
Consider trying the Zeppole di Caterina at Via Napoli ~ hands down my favorite dessert I have ever had anywhere!
those sound deadly.... i just may have to sacrifice myself to test them out

Welllll, you could share with your family, then there is less chance of danger, you know, in case you don't like them

Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Sep Tue 29, 2015 11:23 am
by Captainnobeard
Amy wrote:Captainnobeard wrote:Amy wrote:
Consider trying the Zeppole di Caterina at Via Napoli ~ hands down my favorite dessert I have ever had anywhere!
those sound deadly.... i just may have to sacrifice myself to test them out

Welllll, you could share with your family, then there is less chance of danger, you know, in case you don't like them

but that would be putting my family at risk. i think i'll just have to take the chance and not expose them to such danger

Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Sep Tue 29, 2015 5:53 pm
by Amy
Yeah! That's the ticket! Good luck though...I had convinced Figment I wouldn't share the last time we got them, and she ended up eating more of them than I did

Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Sep Wed 30, 2015 10:32 am
by horizons1
littlered wrote:What are your favorite restaurants to eat at in Walt Disney World? Why? I love counter service and I love the Electric Umbrella
Why do you like Electric Umbrella? Is it for the retro "original Epcot Center" decor? I still like the feel there. For quick serve it used to be my favorite but I would hold off on my burger fulfillment until I got over to Pecos Bill's or Cosmic Ray's where they have generous toppings bars. Electric Umbrella used to be on par for toppings, but they took it out almost ten years ago. I chronicled this in my 2008 Trip Rport:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4037 including finding the Electric Umbrella's old toppings bar at Mouse Surplus.
Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Oct Thu 01, 2015 11:17 am
by TikiTikiRoom
Sanaa at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, The Yak and Yeti at Animal Kingdom (their dumplings are killer), The cinnamon bun (or loaf, considering it's size) at the new place at New Fantasy Land in the Magic Kingdom is fantastic especially for the price you pay... Just a few spots I like. Definitely could go on and on though.
Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Oct Thu 01, 2015 8:55 pm
by Captainnobeard
TikiTikiRoom wrote:Sanaa at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, The Yak and Yeti at Animal Kingdom (their dumplings are killer), The cinnamon bun (or loaf, considering it's size) at the new place at New Fantasy Land in the Magic Kingdom is fantastic especially for the price you pay... Just a few spots I like. Definitely could go on and on though.
glad to hear you love Yak and Yeti. we have reservations there end of the month and have never eaten there before. the reviews all look great for it

Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Oct Wed 07, 2015 7:47 am
by Tiger87
For the year of 2015..It has to be Be Our Guest...My plate couldn't have been any better...and the dinning areas...you feel like you are in the castle...ADR"s are very difficult to get but very worth it

Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Oct Thu 08, 2015 12:30 pm
by JenMuse
I love Jiko. Dined there 3 times now and it's my top choice. I think I'll book two dinners there on my next trip.
Tried Brown Derby for the first time and the beef wellington was great. We did the Fantasmic dining package which included an appetizer and the dessert sampler which is my preference. I'm not a sweets person typically.
Be Our Guest for breakfast was quite filling and very tasty. I had the open face bacon and egg sandwich. The fruit was prettier than it tasted but also not really necessary considering the portion size of the entree. Great value for a QS dining plan credit.
Also hit Citricos for a lovely lovely meal. The soup was sublime, the filet perfectly rare (so many restaurants don't believe me when I say I want it rare and serve me medium rare which I sometimes send back, sometimes not depending on how hungry I am). The gelato sample dessert was charmingly adorable and delicious!
Unfortunately, we also dined at The Plaza and it was a huge disappointment. Barely a half step above QS food quality and slow service. My philly cheese steak was 90% bread and the meat grisly. The brownies in the brownie sundae were huge but terribly dry, lacking in flavor, and hard as bricks (my brother kept flicking them with a knife to get them to crack, never happened). When the waiter asked, I told him honestly that they were the worst brownies I've ever tasted in my life. He wasn't at all surprised and offered to replace the dessert but all I really wanted was the ice cream anyways so I didn't let him. If we had been cash customers I hope they would have offered to strike it from the bill, but since we were using the dining plan, all he could do was shrug his shoulders. Best I can say about The Plaza: it was air conditioned.
Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Oct Thu 08, 2015 6:15 pm
by Amy
JenMuse wrote:I love Jiko. Dined there 3 times now and it's my top choice. I think I'll book two dinners there on my next trip.
Tried Brown Derby for the first time and the beef wellington was great. We did the Fantasmic dining package which included an appetizer and the dessert sampler which is my preference. I'm not a sweets person typically.
Be Our Guest for breakfast was quite filling and very tasty. I had the open face bacon and egg sandwich. The fruit was prettier than it tasted but also not really necessary considering the portion size of the entree. Great value for a QS dining plan credit.
Also hit Citricos for a lovely lovely meal. The soup was sublime, the filet perfectly rare (so many restaurants don't believe me when I say I want it rare and serve me medium rare which I sometimes send back, sometimes not depending on how hungry I am). The gelato sample dessert was charmingly adorable and delicious!
Unfortunately, we also dined at The Plaza and it was a huge disappointment. Barely a half step above QS food quality and slow service. My philly cheese steak was 90% bread and the meat grisly. The brownies in the brownie sundae were huge but terribly dry, lacking in flavor, and hard as bricks (my brother kept flicking them with a knife to get them to crack, never happened). When the waiter asked, I told him honestly that they were the worst brownies I've ever tasted in my life. He wasn't at all surprised and offered to replace the dessert but all I really wanted was the ice cream anyways so I didn't let him. If we had been cash customers I hope they would have offered to strike it from the bill, but since we were using the dining plan, all he could do was shrug his shoulders. Best I can say about The Plaza: it was air conditioned.
I've never tried any of those ~ not sure if I would like Jiko as my tastes are pretty picky if I'm being honest. Might give it a whirl at some point. I would love to try the Brown Derby for the famous Cobb salad someday though. Where were your seats for Fantasmic then? Were they good for being part of the dining package?
Be Our Guest sounds intriguing. The portions must be larger than they appear in pictures. The price kind of stops me there, but if the portions are really large, Figment and I could easily share a meal then. Do you think they allow that? Do all of the meals come with fruit and pastries? Or is it different depending on what meal you order?
I really don't know much about Citricos other than I love the way it rolls of the tongue when you say it! Citricos ~ sounds so elegant and exotic.
My experience with the Plaza is limited. One night when Figment was having a low blood sugar problem, we had the juice she needed, but we also needed a quick protein, and they were very kind when I inquired at the podium about purchasing a few slices of cheese. Once I explained why I wanted to do that, the manager disappeared and reappeared right away with several slices of cheese and refused my offer of payment. For that, I will always be grateful for their help, but I've heard many other stories like your that the food isn't all that wonderful

Thanks for all your info ~ it's very helpful!

Re: Disney World Dining
Posted: Oct Thu 08, 2015 7:15 pm
by JenMuse
Our Fantasmic Dining seats were in the Sorcerer Mickey section which is the center. We didn't get there as early as some, but still got great seats just outside of the splash zone. We got a little mist from the water projections but not enough to damage cameras/phones.